Last updated 19:35, Thursday, 12 February 2009

A BUDGIE fancier is appealing to people to join Cumbria’s last surviving budgerigar society.

Barrie Shutt, 65, of Coronation Avenue, Seaton, has kept, bred and exhibited budgies for 50 years and is president, general secretary and show manager of the West Cumbria Budgerigar Society.

But with just seven active members, Mr Shutt is concerned about the future of the group, based in Workington.

He said:I do not plan to let this fold and this is a plea for help. We are struggling so much that I have taken on three posts just trying to keep the society going.

We have been trying to make the meetings more appealing to get more people out of the house and involved in the society.”

At a meeting on Tuesday the society agreed to introduce a budgie buddy system and make meetings less formal to encourage new members.

Members also agreed to adapt meeting times to better suit members and to buy 20 show cages, which would be available for new members to use.

Mr Shutt has about 120 birds but has had as many as 400 in the past.

He said looking after the birds is therapeutic and people with learning difficulties respond well to them.

He became interested in budgies in 1959 when they cost 50p each and he joined the society in 1972.

To join the West Cumbria Budgerigar Society call Mr Shutt on 01900 67376.

By Chris Story

Last updated at 14:17, Wednesday, 26 May 2010

A leading Cumbrian budgie fancier says lessons must be learned after nine birds died of malnutrition in Carlisle.

Barrie Shutt said owners must ask for help if they find themselves unable to look after their budgies.

His plea comes after a woman whose animals died in a Carlisle aviary said they were malnourished because she couldn’t afford to feed them.

Denise Sharp, 43, of Coalfell Avenue, Raffles, was said to have left the birds in an aviary on one of the coldest weekends of the year.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to supply the budgies with a suitable diet and failing to provide them with a suitable heated environment between November and December 1 last year.

Mr Shutt, of Seaton, near Workington, has kept budgerigars for 51 years and warned that any bird housed away from its natural environment needs 24-7 care.

He believes some people don’t realise the commitment involved when they first see the birds and urged anyone struggling to care for their animals – or needing advice about keeping them – to contact him and he would try to secure help.

And he warned that aviaries must be properly constructed.

“You have got to know what essentials you need to have,” he said. “There are people out here willing  to help you. We have got a speialist society that people can come along to.”

Mr Shutt, a former builders’ merchants’ general manager, has set up a website – www.officialbarrieshuttbudgerigars.com – to advise people involved in keeping and breeding the birds.

He deals with many emails a day through the website and said: “Anyone needing my help, which is free, can contact me at any time, whatever their problem is. If I do not know the answer, I know someone that will.”

At Carlisle Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Sharp’s solicitor said she was sad about what had happened and had not been able to afford the food or heating of the aviary. She had been waiting for a friend to bring food for the birds.

She was disqualified from keeping birds for two years.

Mr Shutt is a member of the West Cumbria Budgerigar Society. He said any budgie breeders and owners were welcome at their 2010 open show at Crosscanonby Community Centre, Crosby, Maryport, to be held on August 1st 2010.

First published at 11:33, Wednesday, 26 May 2010